Opening On the Laws — Cicero in Plato Scroll…
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Cicero · Francis Barham
Translated by Francis Barham, 1842. A dialogue in three books between Cicero, his brother Quintus, and Atticus, on natural law as the foundation of justice and the laws of the ideal commonwealth. Cicero’s treatise on the Laws, which we now for the first time translate into the English language, was composed by its illustrious author in his fifty–sixth year, about two years after the publication of his Commonwealth, to which it forms a supplement. In order to introduce it more familiarly to the reader’s acquaintance, we shall quote a few passages from Middleton, Morabin, and other authors who have criticized the work. “Soon after the death of Clodius (says Middleton) Cicero seems to have written his Treatise on Laws, after the example of Plato, whom of all writers he most loved to imitate. For as Plato after he had written on government in general, drew up a body of laws adapted to that …
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